A Novel Use Of Mathematics

Can Scrabble be improved?

You can find Lynda Woods Cleary playing Scrabble every Tuesday at a Panera in Princeton, NJ. Cleary, a 68-year-old retired financial consultant, has been playing every week for 20 years since founding the Princeton Scrabble Club in 1998. When I asked her if she’s ever disappointed to draw certain tiles, she looked surprised, even hurt. “Oh no,” she said with an Alabama twang. “I want each and every one.”

It’s a sweet sentiment, but according to a 2014 statistical program written by Joshua Lewis, then a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, San Diego, it isn’t a sensible one. His study showed that there are “lucky” tiles in Scrabble: A “Q” is harder to place on a board than a “Z,” and yet both are worth 10 points. Therefore, it’s luckier to draw a “Z” than a “Q.” Lewis argued that the traditional values associated with each letter diminish the role of skill in the game, and recommended changing them to make Scrabble scores more indicative of skill.

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